Jack Greenwalt honored for quarter century of school board service

KINNIKINNICK – Voters in the Zane Trace School District this year may have thought they were missing something in November when they didn’t see Jack Greenwalt’s name on the ballot.

With 26 years on the board over a 30-year span — at least half of them as board president — it was almost a given that he would be there. With his 80th birthday approaching in April, however, he felt it was time to step away.

“It’s time for some of these younger people to get their feet wet,” he said. “It’s time for somebody else to do something. The younger generation’s got to step up. We’ve got the same problem in the fire department, we don’t have any young people, we can’t get any young people, they don’t want to do it.”

Carolyn Everidge-Fry, former Zane Trace superintendent who is currently working for the Ohio Department of Education, agreed that it can be difficult to get people to run because of some of the demands of the job.

“The job’s tough,” she said. “They work long hours, they take calls at all hours of the day, the job comes before your family sometimes and the thanks are very few and very far between, but these are the people who make the sacrifices, and we overlook that. Their dedication to their community is what comes first and is most important.”

While there wasn’t an issue with participation in the Zane Trace school board race this year – five candidates ran for three available seats – finding enough candidates to fill the ballot has been a problem in recent years in some school district and township trustee races. That is what makes Greenwalt’s 26 years notable enough to have garnered attention from the Ohio School Boards Association, which presented him with a special recognition at the opening ceremony of its Capital Conference for at least 25 years of service.

“(Jack) believes in the success of students, he believes in the success of the community,” said Everidge-Fry. “That’s always been his focus around his work.”

He doesn’t necessarily see the years of work as anything overly worthy of recognition.

“I don’t know if it’s anything special,” he said. “I just enjoyed doing it. I helped the kids out, that’s the main thing, the kids. We had good employees, good teachers and you’ve got to keep things going.”

Greenwalt, who also is a longtime volunteer firefighter, has lived in the school district for 72 years and is a graduate of the former Centralia school. Looking back on his service, he points to construction of campus buildings, development of district sports facilities and the beginning of the athletic booster club and its resulting work as high points during his time in office. He just as easily can point to what has become the biggest challenge in recent years for running a school district.

“It’s gotten worse, the money situation,” he said. “The state took the money away from you. The state used to buy a school bus for you each year free, they don’t do that anymore, you don’t get any money from the state for school buses. The money situation is the big problem today.”

The Zane Trace board will have a different look in its new term to deal with that problem. In addition to Greenwalt’s decision not to run again, another longtime board member, Herschel Detty, was defeated in November, opening the door for that next generation of leadership.